The FBI has reportedly fired five employees connected with a controversial 2023 intelligence memo that tied white supremacist extremist ideology to traditionalist Catholic communities.
According to people familiar with the matter, FBI Director Kash Patel dismissed the five intelligence analysts involved in producing the document on June 5. As CatholicVote reported at the time, Patel vowed to investigate the memo during his January 2025 confirmation hearings before Senate lawmakers. The firings appear to be the first publicly confirmed terminations of employees directly involved in drafting and approving the memo.
The employees were not relieved of duty under former FBI Director Christopher Wray. Instead, they received administrative discipline that affected their performance reviews and pay.
The fired analysts’ lawyer, David Laufman, a former Department of Justice (DOJ) official, called the terminations “manifestly unjust” and “completely unsupported by the facts,” arguing the move “subverts standard FBI policy and procedure.” The employees “deserved far better for the exceptional and faithful public service they rendered,” Laufman added.
Background on the memo
The 2023 FBI intelligence memo examined potential links between white supremacist extremists and a small subset of Catholics whom the bureau described as "radical-traditionalist” Catholics, or RTCs.
According to congressional investigators, the memo originated from an investigation involving a Richmond-area individual with alleged neo-Nazi ties who attended traditional Catholic services. But the scope of the memo generalized beyond that specific case.
The FBI retracted the memo after it was leaked in February 2023.
In 2024, a DOJ inspector general review criticized the memo for relying on questionable sources, insufficient evidence, and flawed analytical methods. The report said the document created the appearance that the FBI was targeting individuals based on their religious beliefs
Wray said it failed to meet bureau standards, and then-Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned its use.
While the memo attempted to distinguish RTCs from Catholics who simply prefer traditional forms of worship, including the Traditional Latin Mass, critics argued that the analysis blurred those distinctions.
Then-Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, speaking on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the FBI memo's "religious profiling" and reliance on what he called dubious sources while reaffirming the Church's opposition to racism and violence. Cardinal Dolan said the document was "troubling and offensive" and urged federal law enforcement officials to ensure similar actions did not occur again, as CatholicVote reported.
Legal action and accountability
The controversy has fueled years of congressional investigations, whistleblower disclosures, and legal challenges.
CatholicVote quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI in April 2023, seeking records related to the FBI's monitoring of traditional Catholics and arguing the memo reflected broader government hostility toward people of faith.
CatholicVote later reported the House Judiciary Committee and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, disclosed records in 2025 that showed the memo had been distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees and that the bureau had produced additional documents using similar terminology.
The committee also reported that FBI officials explored outreach to Catholic parishes and diocesan leaders in order to cultivate sources who could identify potential indicators of extremist activity among fellow Catholics.